Because of an upcoming client project, I’ve subscribed to many, many technical ezines as part of the research. Basically, I have to get my brain up to speed on what is happening in the technology industry. So, I’ve been reading (or at least skimming) more than I ever wanted to know about the recent rash of viruses.
In case you’ve been under a rock or at least not checked your e-mail in the last few days, the big news out in cyberspace is the Sobig virus. If you’ve gotten mail that’s about 70K – 100K with an attachment and a subject line of Thank You, Details, or similar innocuous-sounding title, you have shared the joy.
Once again, I remain thankful that I do not use Outlook and that I download headers first (not the entire e-mail). This way I can nuke suspicious mail off the server where it can’t harm my computer. Even with extensive filtering, I delete probably 50 -100 pieces of spam per day without downloading it. The whole spam situation is a sickening waste of time and makes you just dread checking your e-mail.
Now it appears that something I’ve always wondered about is probably true. The two scummiest forms of Internet dreck may actually be related: spammers and virus authors. I read an article on CNET about an older variant of Sobig that indicates that spammers are using viruses to send their anonymous spam:
http://news.com.com/2100-1002-1020963.html
The whole spam debate has always centered on freedom of speech and the right to market. Even though spam has always been an impediment to legitimate communication, people make money off of it, so nothing real has ever been done to stop it. Now however, huge businesses are losing huge amounts of money dealing with servers crashing under the load of millions of bogus e-mails.
As far as I’m concerned, if spammers are hiring criminals to do their dirty work, they’ve really crossed a line. I only hope that by doing so, something will finally be done to stem the tide. Spam isn’t just a "little nuisance" anymore.